Traces

Pasqua Vorgia

The city is a canvas. Looking at it closely, in projection view, one discovers traces of events, deep marks or scars engraved upon its surfaces. Evidence of violence, conflict, juxtaposition, evolution. Some of these marks are erased; some are barely visible; others remain intact, working themselves into layers of history, impossible to hide or be ignored. Like traces of human memories directly projected on concrete. The political and the social become physical, altering the building material of the city; affecting and tranfsorming matter. My close-up, projection views are the operations of an urban archaeology, excavations into the collective unconscious. Taking the role of a forensic investigator who tries to shed light on things, I end up taking the city’s testimony, inventing a mental magnifying lens, discovering proof of crime, and in the process turning all of it into historical evidence.This is the invisible coat of the city, almost underlying, barely protruding, an urban landscape molecularly shaken by turmoil, the place I call home, my city of Athens.